April 28, 2010

Patrick Disney on the false choice on Iran

Patrick Disney writes in InsideIran.org about the false-choice being foisted on Obama in dealing with Iran:

[C]ritics of Obama's Iran policy are seeking to frame the issue as a choice between living with a nuclear Iran and taking military action to prevent it. Yet this framing deliberately eliminates the various other options the President has at his disposal, and it is intentionally designed to make the military option seem preferable.

There is little doubt that the Obama administration views military options on Iran as a means only of last resort, but if conventional wisdom solidifies around this stark choice of either a nuclear-armed Iran or a military strike, President Obama is likely to find himself surrounded by members of both parties propagating the idea that all other options have, in fact, been exhausted.

Framing the issue in this manner has been part of the Iran warmonger agenda for quite a while. I wrote about the framing of the Iran issue as a false dilemma in 2007, and again couple of years ago, twice. See also this:

To see the False Dilema at work, in addition to Kuperman's piece, see for example:

- The Economist article entitled "An Iranian nuclear bomb, or the bombing of Iran?" which concludes: "So which will it be: a war with Iran, or a nuclear-armed Iran?"

- A NY Times wrote editorial of June 28 2008 according to which, "The European Union’s decision [to enforce unilateral sanctions] reinforces the *only* strategy that might — might — have a chance of *peacefully* persuading Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions." (emphasis mine.)

- A press release issued by the New America Foundation about speech by Gary Samore on the subject of "Countering a Nuclear-Armed Iran", which states:

"Unless significantly greater sanctions are applied...we will eventually face a choice between acquiescing to Iran obtaining a nuclear weapons break out option or using military force to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities."

THe false choice is intended to downplay and ignore peaceful options to end the standoff that would respect Iran's rights too -- such as Iran's repeated offer operating its nuclear program as a multinational effort, thus ensuring that it can't be secretly used to make bombs.

Ahmadinejad: A study in obstinacy"Iran has often been at the receiving end of ultimatums from foreign powers," said Cyrus Safdari, an independent Iranian analyst. "The politicians who stood up to these ultimatums are treated as heroes, and the ones who caved are still considered to be traitors."

ASIA TIMES: Funding regime change Madame Rice has a really bad sense of timing in seeking to 'reach out to the people of Iran' - who don't need $75 million to watch 'a few bad apples' from the US torturing people in Abu Ghraib."